Chapter 53
The sunlight in the room was too bright—white, sharp, unforgiving. It poured in through the thin curtains and settled heavily on Rhianna’s skin like a weight she wasn’t strong enough to lift. She blinked against it, her head aching, her body sore from a night of crying she barely remembered. Her throat felt raw, and when she moved, her bones ached as if something inside her had been hollowed out.
A soft knock came at the door.
“Rhianna?”
Tia’s voice floated in gently, but even the softness scraped against her nerves.
Rhianna sat up slowly, tugging the blanket closer around her shoulders. “Come in.”
The door opened, and Tia slipped inside, her eyes already glossy with worry. She took one look at Rhianna’s swollen eyes and pale face and let out a breath. “Oh, honey…”
Rhianna looked away sharply. “I want to go home.”
Tia froze. “No.”
Her voice wasn’t cruel, but it was firm enough to make Rhianna’s chest tighten.
“No?” Rhianna repeated, her voice cracking. “Tia, please. I don’t… I don’t want to stay here anymore. I can’t. Everything hurts. My head, my wolf—my chest—everything feels wrong. I want to go home.”
“You can’t,” Tia said again, firmer this time.
Rhianna’s throat closed. “Why? Am I a prisoner now? Did I do something?” Tears welled again, hot and stinging. “Why can’t anyone tell me what’s happening?”
Before Tia could answer, Hardin appeared at the doorway. His expression was unreadable, guarded, his jaw tight. He leaned against the frame, arms crossed, looking like he hadn’t slept.
Rhianna wiped her face quickly. “Hardin… can I go home?”
Silence.
Not even a breath from him.
His golden eyes dropped to the floor.
Rhianna stared at him, disbelief blooming slowly into something sharp and painful. “Why aren’t you answering me?” Her voice trembled. “Hardin—please. Just tell me.”
Still nothing.
Her heart cracked a little.
Tia exhaled shakily and sat on the edge of the bed. “Rhianna… sweetheart… it’s not that you can’t leave. It’s that—” She hesitated, looking at Hardin for help.
Hardin still didn’t speak.
Rhianna’s breaths turned shallow. “Just say it,” she whispered. “Please.”
Tia swallowed and finally said the words that seemed to crush the air itself.
“It’s because of Sebastian.”
Rhianna blinked. The name hit her like the world suddenly shifted sideways. “Sebastian?” she whispered. “What did he do?”
Hardin finally stepped forward, voice low, almost hollow. “The council made a decision.”
Rhianna’s stomach lurched. “What decision?”
Hardin hesitated, then forced the words out. “Today… is Brittany’s Luna ceremony.”
Silence.
The kind of silence that shatters something inside.
Rhianna didn’t breathe. She didn’t blink. She didn’t move.
“What?”
Her voice was soft, but the word splintered.
“It’s today,” Hardin repeated, staring at the floor. “The ceremony is happening this afternoon.”
Rhianna shook her head slowly, like she was underwater. “No… no, that’s not… that doesn’t make sense.” She laughed weakly, the sound broken. “He—he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t do that. Not without—he would come to me first. He would—he would tell me.”
Tia reached for her hand, but Rhianna jerked away.
“No,” Rhianna whispered again. “He wouldn’t do that.”
Tia’s voice cracked as she spoke. “Rhianna… the council thinks you’re too weak to serve as Luna. They said Brittany is strong, healthy… and already pregnant with his child.”
The words hit harder than any physical blow. Rhianna felt them in her ribs, in her spine, in her dying wolf who whimpered so faintly she could barely feel her.
Her heartbeat thundered painfully, her vision blurring at the edges. “Pregnant?”
Her voice came out strangled.
Hardin closed his eyes. “Yes.”
“And Sebastian just… agreed?” she breathed. “Just like that?”
Hardin didn’t answer.
His silence was the answer.
Rhianna covered her mouth with both hands, trying to swallow the sob that ripped through her. “So he replaced me while I was dying? He didn’t even wait—he didn’t even refuse?” Tears spilled harder, uncontrollable. “Is that… is that why he hasn’t come to see me?”
Tia wrapped her arms around her, but Rhianna felt nothing but the fracture spreading through her chest.
“They already assigned someone else to him,” Tia whispered. “They said they can’t risk an Alpha without a stable Luna.”
Rhianna shook violently. “I’m not even dead yet.”
“That’s why we didn’t want to tell you,” Hardin murmured.
Her head snapped up, eyes blazing with grief. “I need to see it.”
Tia stiffened. “Rhianna—no. You’re not stable enough—”
“I don’t care.” Her voice trembled but didn’t break. “I need to see it with my own eyes.”
Hardin stepped closer, worry etched into every line of his face. “Rhianna—”
“If I don’t see it,” she whispered, voice hoarse, “my mind will make it worse.”
She stood on shaky legs, clutching the bed frame for balance.